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Johnston `believes in nobility of public life'

OTTAWA&ndash;More than 14 years ago, David Johnston, then principal of McGill University, was touted in a newspaper article as a distinguished, if long-shot candidate to enter the race to succeed Brian Mulroney as Conservative leader and prime minister.

By Susan DelacourtOttawa Bureau

Thu., Nov. 15, 2007

OTTAWA–More than 14 years ago, David Johnston, then principal of McGill University, was touted in a newspaper article as a distinguished, if long-shot candidate to enter the race to succeed Brian Mulroney as Conservative leader and prime minister.

Yesterday, Johnston's name was linked with Mulroney's again – this time, as the man who will set the terms for any inquiry that proceeds into the controversy over Mulroney and his links to German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. Johnston is currently the president of the University of Waterloo.

"I am confident that Professor Johnston will carry out his duties with diligence and rigour," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a news release announcing the appointment.

Even critics of Harper, such as former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, agree.

"He's a very serious person," Cotler told reporters yesterday, noting he had known Johnston for 35 years, including as a colleague at McGill. "I know him and he'll do an authoritative inquiry ... That is a good appointment."

Johnston, 66, who was refusing all media interviews yesterday, is indeed well-respected and is no stranger to politics, having moderated both the 1979 and 1984 televised federal election debates, the latter of which included Mulroney.

Johnston also moderated the 1987 provincial leaders' debate in Ontario. He was the founding chair of the National Round Table on Environment and the Economy – an appointment accepted during Mulroney's years in power, and has served on a number of high-profile panels

In his long, academic career, Johnston has taught law at the University of Toronto, Queen's University and the University of Western Ontario, where he was the dean of law. He was named principal of McGill in 1979 and stayed on as a law professor there after he left the top job, until accepting the presidency of Waterloo in 1999.

What's less known about Johnston is that he was the inspiration for a minor character in the famous 1970s novel Love Story. Sharing early-morning jogs with author Erich Segal when both men were students at Harvard, Johnston appears in the book as Davey, the captain of the hockey team.

(He was also Harvard's hockey captain in real life.)

Robert Prichard, now president and CEO of Torstar, is well acquainted with Johnston – their paths having crossed many times in academia, through Prichard's own time as a dean of law and then president of the University of Toronto.

Prichard calls him "as fine a Canadian as I know" and says Johnston is a man of energy and integrity. "He believes in the nobility of public life and could easily have been prime minister himself."

Prichard says that Johnston was the best university president in Canada during his 15 years leading McGill. "The greatest compliment to me would be when people sometimes said: `You're like David Johnston.'"

Johnston and Harper have met in person at least once. As recently as May, the Prime Minister and some cabinet ministers paid a call on Waterloo and had a 45-minute meeting with a delegation that included Johnston, who had nothing but praise to offer when the session ended.

"They understand the challenge for Canada in the world," Johnston said. "They understand that talent will be necessary and they see this particular region and its cluster of institutions and private-sector collaboration as the bellwether for how Canada is going to compete."

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